It's surprising that developers are still finding ways to screw up World War II real-time strategy games. Games like the fantastic Company of Heroes should be the rule by this point, not the exception, seeing as developers have stacks of games to pick apart to see what works and what doesn't.

Intense combat with loads of enemies; Detailed visuals

Awkward; unresponsive control scheme; Artificial intelligence interferes with movement orders; Linear mission design; Some annoying language translation problems

Faces of War sends strategy gamers back to World War II to try their hand at commanding American, Russian, or German forces through a series of battles. So far it sounds like a hundred similar such games that have come before it, right? Not exactly.

Cannon Fodder. That was the game I couldn't think of when previewing Faces of War all the way back in, err, September - finally, now I can sleep. Intentionally or not, Ubisoft's new action strategy game has a lot more in common with Codemasters' peerless Amiga classic than you would expect.

What lives in the dark corners of the earth? Jack Walters has glimpsed it - and that sight drove him to suicide. Thus opens Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, with the death of the main character. Hope? Purpose? Pleasure? To him, all meaningless.

There's no doubt about it: attempting to change or revolutionise a genre that has been in existence seemingly since the birth of PC gaming is no easy task. The real-time strategy genre has long been a popular choice for PC gamers over the decades, with the creation of such games as the classic...

WWII RTS action, for those who aren't sick of it.

This is a great game. Hadn't heard of it until I saw it at Circuit City for $3.29. Best three bucks I ever spent on a video game. I don't think it's really comparable to Company of Heroes, which I've played since '06.

There's no doubt that the RTS genre is progressively moving forward, leaving behind it a barrage of samey and bland titles that have stifled it for a number of years. New features are being tested, and some of the big players in the industry such as THQ are now dipping their toes into the water of...

Platoon of Heroes.

"...command vast forces in Faces of War. Due to the unpredictable AI, you can't count on your troops to behave sensibly or shoot accurately, therefore micro-management comes to a frustrating new level; you'll constantly switch between your troops to prevent them from throwing grenades at each other.

destructable environments; great multiplayer modes; especially online

poor single player campaigns; poor AI